Creative Writing

The Valley Nerd Watch!

As always we have our special end of the year event: being kind of tired and probably having a cold so this is really short. Thankfully there aren’t a ton of events this week either!

Oh! And come check out Nerd Nite NoHo on January 8th, at the World War 2 Club, 7:00pm – 9:00pm! It’s going to be wonderful and the weather will hopefully not be wildly cold.

Oh! And also we got to DM some D&D over the weekend of Christmas and it was a great time. We don’t get to do that enough! It’s always really fun to be able to use the scaffolding of a situation/ruleset to have fun describing how your pals have managed to stab their own foot trying to kill a giant rat.

Happy New Year again! Resolve to make improvements that are achievable and have steps to them so you can always feel like you’re making progress if you’re going to resolve anything!

Board Games:

Play boardgames with friends and soon-to-be-friends as well as some of the friendly staff at Modern Myths! It’s a great night to try out something you may have been meaning to check out! We really recommend Istanbul or Photosynthesis if they’ve got those. Chill, entertaining games of friendly competition.

Card Games:

Learn to play Magic in a casual setting with the friendly staff of Modern Myths! Test out a cool new deck, play with constructed decks if other folks are into it, get special door prizes! It’s the perfect night for new Magic players or people who just want to take it easy! It’s $5 to attend, which is immediately converted to store credit.

Computers:

Tuesday, January 2nd

The Foundry [24 Main St., Northampton, MA] at 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM

Northampton Webdive – After Work

A rendezvous of the most fantastic sort! It’s a chance to hang out with web developers and coders and just folks in general, talk about web dev stuff and just hang at a nice local bar!

Lasers! Too dangerous for our children? Nonsense, we say! Light up the night and carve the library into neat cauterized cubes with what we can only assume are high-powered laser beams. Don’t know what the “tag” part is implying. Suitable for ages 11-17, registration required! Use the Garden entrance after 5pm.

Movies:

Pizza and a movie: the ultimate chance to have pizza and also watch a movie. Teens, don’t let this slip by! This is your chance to have pizza and watch a film! It’s a hoot to do so with pals! Free and intended for ages 12 – 17!

RPGs:

A monthly D&D club for players 8-12! You can become a member of this club by prepaying $50. That gets you help with creating a character, a mini, a custom D&D session, and a set of dice! It’s the perfect way to play a fun game with friends! We recommend you play a bard. Actually everyone should play as a bard and you should be adventurers by day and a traveling band by night!

RPGs are great! Play Noirlandia, or Questlandia, or Dread, or Monsterhearts, or Apocalypse World, or Dogs in the Vineyard, or One Thousand and One Nights, or any of a lot of amazing games created right here in this Valley! They’re all very good!

Play one of the classic RPGs at Modern Myths! New players are always welcome, and there’s a friendly crowd there every week! We recommend playing fast and loose, since it’s a drop-in drop-out game, so worst case you can come back in a few months with your bard’s ‘long-lost uncle who’s also secretly a god’.

The Valley Nerd Watch!

This weekend we were busy with a Halloween party and general socializing so the only thing we really have to say is we just bought a copy of Bubblegumshoe and we’re excited to read through and put together a game! It features writing by local creator Emily Care Boss!

THIS WEEK

Art:

Join the curator for a lunchtime gallery talk! Dr. Malloy will share her insights on the Mead’s collection of American art! No word yet on when they’re going to finally feature their collection of Lemurian art.

Play board games at a wonderful local store! The staff will help you set yourself up, and you’ll quickly be exploring fun new games with a whole bunch of other friendly Valley residents! There’s also always a game demo available to show you something new! Beginners welcome, ages 13+ recommended, younger folks welcome with a parent!

Books:

From the site: “A dazzling debut about family, home, and grief, The Floating World takes readers into the heart of Hurricane Katrina with the story of the Boisdores, whose roots stretch back nearly to the foundation of New Orleans.”

Talk with Author Grace Lin – The Books Are Not Enough: Windows, Mirrors, and the Bookshelves of our Community

If we agree that diversity is important in children’s literature, what can we do to pay it more than just lip service? How can we use books to create a community that’s accepting to more people? In an extended version of her TEDx talk, Newbery Honor author Grace Lin will share personal experiences and strategies to support diversity through children’s lit!

From the site: “Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Daniel Golden exposes how academia has become the center of foreign and domestic espionage and why that is troubling news for our nation’s security.” Our experience with academia mostly exposed us to the fact that it’s the center of a sort of howling void.

A Conversation with Dr. Beverly Tatum: Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together In the Cafeteria? and Other Conversations About Race, 20th Anniversary

From the site: “Former Dean of Faculty and Acting President of Mount Holyoke College, and Ninth President of Spelman College (2002-2015),Dr. Tatum is widely recognized as a race relations expert and leader in higher education. Her areas of research include racial identity development and the role of race in the classroom.”

From the site: “Having brought his legions of devoted readers to Oz in Wicked and to Wonderland in After Alice, Maguire now takes us to the realms of the Brothers Grimm and E. T. A. Hoffmann– the enchanted Black Forest of Bavaria and the salons of Munich. Hiddensee imagines the backstory of the Nutcracker, revealing how this entrancing creature came to be carved and how he guided an ailing girl named Klara through a dreamy paradise on a Christmas Eve.”

Card Games:

Learn to play Magic in a casual setting with the friendly staff of Modern Myths! Test out a cool new deck, play with constructed decks if other folks are into it, get special door prizes! It’s the perfect night for new Magic players or people who just want to take it easy! It’s $5 to attend, which is immediately converted to store credit.

History:

A talk about you guessed it Magic The Gathering no we’re joking it’s about married women and their businesses in Greenfield around the turn of the previous century. Some of these businesses still exist! There are also newspaper accounts in historic papers that bring extra information to light! Learn about your local culture and history via primary sources!

Meadow City Historians Quarterly Meeting at the Bridge Street Cemetary

Jane Slatterly aka Find A Grave’s P.K. Magruder which what the heck what’s Find A Grave oh it’s an old site that allows you to do that, and it’s neat will present a virtual cemetery tour! Tom Gleason, who spent a lot of time working on the Cemetery Maintenance Crew, will also answer questions! It’s an interesting history lesson/memento mori.

Families can participate in a town-wide scavenger hunt! Visit the library on Halloween to pick up your hunt cards and clues, and then get prizes at each of the scavenger hunt destinations! Every destination will give you a stamp on your card, and you get an extra prize when you return to the library after visiting at least 6! Sounds charming as heck.

In her debut picture book, author Chanavia Haddock tells the story of a young girl’s day in the snow! There are miracles throughout and also the book’s title is Miracle, both of those things are true! Book signing to follow the program!

RPGs:

A monthly D&D club for players 8-12! You can become a member of this club by prepaying $50. That gets you help with creating a character, a mini, a custom D&D session, and a set of dice! It’s the perfect way to play a fun game with friends! We recommend you play a bard. Actually everyone should play as a bard and you should be adventurers by day and a traveling band by night!

Science:

Monday, October 30th

Union Station [125 Pleasant St, Northampton] at 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM

What a Mouse Can Tell Us about Autism and Other Brain-Immune Links

See a talk by Jared Schwartzer, Assistant Professor of Psychology and Education as well as Neuroscience and Behavior at Mount Holyoke College! He’ll answer questions like “Why do I act different when I’m sick?” and “Can studying our immune system help us better understand disorders like Autism?”

Want to know more about your family’s past? We prefer to allow the mists of time to cover the hideous transgressions of our ignoble bloodline but we get it if you want to double-check if anyone in your family tree was famous or something. You’ll leave this event ready to start your searching!

The Valley Nerd Watch!

This week is starting out pretty good we think! We recommend checking out the Queers in Comics & Games discussion at Modern Myths tomorrow. It’s a great place to meet new people and have a chat, and it’s a way to support a wonderful local shop! And you get a great excuse to spend $5 on some comics and games!

This past week we again had a lovely time at Wednesday Games at The Brass Cat! We got to play Tiny Epic Quest, which is a fun if slightly overly fluffy game. There were little bits and bobs that you could attach to your tiny meeple figures and frankly they mostly contributed to an avalanche of plastic which might be lost. Also, it was rough getting a clear grasp of some of the mechanics until 3/5 turns in, which had the effect of making everyone at various points suddenly very sad as they realize oh shoot I messed up bad!

Still once things got going it was nice, and the mechanics worked together to ensure that the finish-line wasn’t too far away once we had coherent plans in place. We think Tiny Epic Galaxies was more fun and less fuss, though.

Also earlier we got to play Time of Crisis, an excellent game from the always-spectacular and often confusing GMT! This one wasn’t confusing, though! It’s just a very straightforward attempt to rack up victory points by controlling and improving parts of Rome, and then becoming Emperor at the right moment! Making things a bit more interesting is a system of deck-building that doesn’t require you to shuffle, so you can spend time figuring out how you want to construct your next couple hands as you look at your deck. We had a blast even though we got soundly defeated.

We also just had a fun time building characters for Breaking The Ice of the Romance Trilogy, excellent game by local excellent person Emily Care Boss of Black & Green Games. We highly recommend you check it out! A rare two-person RPG, it’s the perfect game to play with a pal who’s a bit nervous about getting into an adventuring party!

THIS WEEK

Art:

Each Tuesday, meet up in the Teen Room and walk as a group to the Radioplasma Recording Studio at 306 Race St. to learn about media literacy, get hands-on experience with song recording, journalism, storytelling, and sound mixing! Also, oddly enough, geology. No one tries to make it happen, but everyone comes out knowing more about sediment.

Jones Library [43 Amity St., Amherst, MA 01002] at 4:00 PM to 5:00 PM

Teen Craft: Shrink, Shrank, Shrunk (Making Jewlery)

We enjoy the fact that they definitely liked the name of this but realized it in no way communicated ‘Jewelry’ at the end. They made it work, though! Create jewelry using stamps, Shrinky Dink material, and a heat source! Open to ages 11-17, pre-register by calling 413-259-3091 or at teens@joneslibrary.org by 5:30pm Monday!

Learn to play the only instrument that looks like a small guitar besides a guitar that’s quite small. Julie brings her 20 Ukuleles and her prepared lessons to get the playing started! This is limited to 20 participants! Reserve a Ukulele by registering early by calling 413-420-8101! We suppose you could also just attend willy-nilly, but you may wind up watching 20 other people learn to play Ukulele.

Board Games:

Play board games at a wonderful local store! The staff will help you set yourself up, and you’ll quickly be exploring fun new games with a whole bunch of other friendly Valley residents! There’s also always a game demo available to show you something new! Beginners welcome, ages 13+ recommended, younger folks welcome with a parent!

Card Games:

Learn to play Magic in a casual setting with the friendly staff of Modern Myths! Test out a cool new deck, play with constructed decks if other folks are into it, get special door prizes! It’s the perfect night for new Magic players or people who just want to take it easy! It’s $5 to attend, which is immediately converted to store credit.

Comic Books:

Talk to a bunch of wonderful people about LGBTQIA+ representation in comics and games of all stripes! It’s moderated by the spectacular store manager, and admission is a day pass of $5 that immediately becomes store credit!

Community:

Get information about becoming a foster parent! Get started on helping out some kids!

Thursday, August 31st

Jones Library [43 Amity St., Amherst, MA 01002] at 1:00 PM to 2:30 PM

Creating Community for Women with Chronic Illness

We hold a monthly support group for women living with a variety of chronic illnesses (e.g. autoimmune disorder, MS, arthritis, Crohn’s and colitis, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Lyme disease, etc.). It is free and open to the public.

Computers:

A Raspberry Jam is a place for young and old, experienced hands and new folks, to learn about Raspberry Pi! What is Raspberry Pi? A tiny inexpensive computer you can practice coding with! And Robotics! If that sounds neat, come hang out and learn more!

Librarian and officially licensed Tech Wizard Dylan Tibert will teach you the fundamentals of designing your own website using WordPress. Classes will be a one hour lecture followed by a hands-on workshop. Perfect for experienced computer users who are beginners at web design! This class covers how to get started with web servers and WordPress!

Entertainment:

Watch anime! Watch one about robots! Gundam, maybe? There are more than one Gundam series, right? We just heard about one episode being so bad it was expelled from the canon, which could be fun to watch!

Take a trip back, in TIME that is! Back to the era of the Mesozoic! We think. We’re about 90% certain. It’s also possible that this is a 50’s throwback band but we’re almost entirely sure that it’s a dinosaur-themed ‘rock’ band haha get it. Bring blankets or lawn chairs! Free to all and sundry!

Check out the film first! Watch it at home! They don’t screen the film there! You can use Kanopy.com to see it too! Then, again we stress after having already watched the film, go talk about it with these friendly folks!

Meet in the Lobby with the friendly friends of the Western Mass Sci-Fi Meetup! You can sit together at the film and discuss it afterward! This movie sounds very neat: “The special effects, outrageous plot line and apocalyptic message harmonize with the otherworldly score and a climactic live performance by one of the most innovative and profound groups in jazz history.”

Saturday, September 2nd

Jones Library [43 Amity St., Amherst, MA 01002] at 2:30 PM to 4:30 PM

Jane Austen Film Festival: Northanger Abbey

Watch a beautiful Jane Austen movie about an abbey named Northanger, and all the adventures it has! We have not read this Jane Austen book.

RPGs:

Play the old familiar, the classic, the one with dungeons and also dragons! You’ll be exploring the Dwarven fortress Stone Tooth! The adventure is recommended for characters of at least level 3. To enter, you need to get a $5 day pass, but that becomes store credit immediately!

RPGs are great! Play Noirlandia, or Questlandia, or Dread, or Monsterhearts, or Apocalypse World, or Dogs in the Vineyard, or One Thousand and One Nights, or any of a lot of amazing games created right here in this Valley! They’re all very good!

Return, heroes, to Elmerton! A season has been spent away, and now’s the time to discover what has changed! You can find out as a Player Character or a Non Player Character, and if you want to be a Non Player and help flesh out the cast, it’s free and includes meals! Check out https://www.meetup.com/larping/events/242818315/!

The Valley Nerd Watch!

We had a wonderful time at Nerd Nite this past week! And guess what we made a special announcement and we’re going to re-make that announcement here, but later! Next time attend Nerd Nite if you want the scoop, folks.

Nerd Nite NoHo is going to have a special show at the Academy of Music! In anticipation of the Academy’s putting on the play Einstein! by Jack Fry on November 18th we’re going to do an Einstein-focused Nerd Nite on Monday, October 23rd! Two local physics professors – Dr. Gary Felder and Dr. Brokk Toggerson – are going to discuss cosmology and how it relates to relativity and the sometimes unsolved mysteries of the physics of the mundane!

It’ll be the best opportunity you have to take your friends and family to a Nerd Nite! You’ll be able to pretend it’s a way classier event! We’re excited!

THIS WEEK

Art:

Create a god or goddess to add to the pantheon, young writers ages 9 – 12! Children’s author Burleigh Muten will help you create a new myth! Don’t go too hard on the mythmaking though you don’t want to wake up to a knock on the door from the Un-Council of No-Space, they keep a lid on the power levels of most gods. Pre-registration only, $100, call 413-657-7721 to pre-register!

Zine fiends clean your spleens and eat some greens on the way to the zine club! It’s the most important night of the week! Let us know if you make a zine and we will maybe feature it in the Nerd Watch? Yeah why not that sounds fun. Zines!

Award-winning biographer Barry Werth and composer Eric Sawyer will describe how they and the librettist Harley Erdman transformed the powerful story of Newton Arvin, a Smith professor who was persecuted in the 60s for ‘possession of lewd photos of men’, into an opera. We’re going to assume they made it somewhat like the Scarlet Letter, because of the name!

Board Games:

Play board games at a wonderful local store! The staff will help you set yourself up, and you’ll quickly be exploring fun new games with a whole bunch of other friendly Valley residents! There’s also always a game demo available to show you something new! Beginners welcome, ages 13+ recommended, younger folks welcome with a parent!

Books:

Thursday, August 24th

Packards [14 Masonic Street, Northampton, MA] at 6:30 PM to 9:00 PM

Hugo Award nominated short fiction + dinner

Read a bunch of excellent short fiction works and then talk about them with a group of friendly people at a nice local restaurant! You can find a link to each of the stories discussed on the meetup page! https://www.meetup.com/4scifi/events/242268636/

Ages 8+! Also their families! Meet an author and illustrator who is lovely and then have a writing and illustration lab and some snacks! What a delightful afternoon this sounds like, good job Mark Parisi!

Deception is a book with a cover image of what look like some snappily-dressed mob people pointing guns while competing to be in the most photogenic shadows so we’re assuming kind of a noir adventure/thriller? Really long talk, too! Maybe it’s just someone recording an audio-book while you’re in the room.

Card Games:

Play Magic in the Booster Draft format which we are not super familiar with but it seems like you basically get a bunch of booster packs and draft a deck from them. Your $16 entry fee includes MA Sales Tax and purchases your 3 boosters, as well as adding a pack to the prize pool! Everyone who participates will get at least one prize pack, and special promos will go to exceptional players! This is an intermediate-level event, ages 13+ recommended! Younger players allowed with an adult accompanying them!

From the creators of the spectacular DRAGOON, check out and provide excellent and useful feedback about Human Era! It’s a competitive time-travelling card game which sounds pretty neat. Stop by any time from one to four to help out and play a fun game!

Are you interested in supporting students in your community? You can help by volunteering to become a Special Education Surrogate Parent (SESP) for a student in state care that requires special education supports and whose parents are unknown or unavailable. These children depend on SESPs to protect their legal right to a free and appropriate education.

Movies:

The Northampton Committee to Stop War offers a fee and accessible screening of John Pilger’s 60th film for ITV. Pilger dives deep into the US’s belligerence toward the world’s second economic power, and why it seems like we’re on the long road to a short and horrific war. Discussion will follow the film!

RPGs:

Play the old familiar, the classic, the one with dungeons and also dragons! You’ll be exploring the Dwarven fortress Stone Tooth! The adventure is recommended for characters of at least level 3. To enter, you need to get a $5 day pass, but that becomes store credit immediately!

SPACE:

Monday, August 21st

America [Earth] at 1:30 PM to 4:00 PM

The Sun Escapes

It’s done it this time, folks, it’s really gone and done it. We had it for a long time, we kept it here to keep us warm and to help us photosynthesize but it’s gone and slipped the chains and it’s taking the first train to anywhere but here. The portal will open and begin swallowing the sun around 1:30pm, and by about 2:30pm we should all begin to freeze into an endless tableau of eternal night, and then at about 4:00pm the Sun will arrive… somewhere a little bit better than here.

Science:

Astronomy is the study of how to chain stars. Basically it’s a series of elaborate binding rituals that “Astronemeers” use each day to make sure that a new star is available to power Earth for the day. Learn more about this eldritch scientific pursuit and watch as Astronemeers attempt to keep the sun from escaping!

The Valley Nerd Watch!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! This is a good holiday in general because it’s just about putting all of the food you possibly can into your stomach, and that’s what the true meaning of the holidays is.

If you’re going to have a good Thanksgiving with a lot of food and family and friends that is really nice and you should appreciate it! If you’re looking forward to a bunch of tense as heck political conversations we’re pulling for you and you should maybe take a look at this? It might help a bit. Also remember that Friendsgiving is also an option!

If you’re having a nice Thanksgiving, this is the perfect time to donate to Monte’s March! It’s the yearly event that raises a bunch of money for the Food Bank of Western Mass where local hero and nice person Monte Belmonte of 93.9 The River walks 43 danged miles from Springfield to Northampton and then from Northampton to Greenfield!

Give them what you can, because they’re super efficient with money! Like a couple bucks will get needed food to one of the 211,000 people in Massachusetts who need food! If you do a monthly donation of any amount they would appreciate it even more because it means they can count on you in their budgets and that makes a lot of things easier!

THIS WEEK

Art:

Write! Write like you’re going to write your way out of this trouble you got yourself into! This write-in will be an opportunity to get some work done on the next great American novel that you are writing! It’ll shock everyone when it is completed in a danged month!

Write! Write like they’re gaining on you! This write-in will be an opportunity to get some work done on the next great American novel that you are writing! It’ll shock everyone when it is completed in a danged month!

Board Games:

Learn to play the board game Colony with the friendly host Justin who will teach you how. It’s a sort of production/building game where the hook is that some resources are volatile and some aren’t and you totally know if that sounds like a cool idea to you!

Blood Bowl is like football except fantasy characters play it and you don’t have to worry about the consequences of repeatedly concussing your Minotaurs. Also we’re pretty sure it’s only a moderate foul to murder the other players. It’s also a board game, to be clear. Look, this is like 4 iterations thick of game we can’t keep everything straight for you!

Give back to your community OR get books for cheap! You can either get 20% off your purchase or you can give 20% of the purchase to the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts! There’s also going to be cider for you and homemade cookies and a free gift with any purchase of $50 or more! There are also a bunch of guest booksellers who are going to have neat unique things in stock for you! A great opportunity to help your community!

Comics for a buck! Buy comics for a single dollar, which is a really good price for a comic book! We’re really annoyed we’re going to be home for Thanksgiving when this deal happens, but don’t tell our family that please!

Movies:

Teens! Go watch a movie at the library, it’ll cost you $0! Watch a movie, talk about that movie after the movie, and you get to vote for the movie! Vote for the movie that every teen wants to see this winter season: the Yearling.

Watch a really delightful children’s film about a little boy who is very compassionate and nice to people and also has origami powers and needs to fight like a star-god? It’s a complex film that was nice and we liked a ton!

The story of Sophie Tucker, a genuine Superstar of Vaudville, Broadway, radio, television, and movies through a lot of the 20th century! She was a bold cool classy tough lady and it’ll be neat to learn about her and how she enchanted the world for years! It’s $4 for students, $6 for members, and $8 for The Rest Of Us.

The Valley Nerd Watch!

In times when we feel defeated and saddened by the state of the world, we often turn to the words of comfort our father used to give us:

“Life is an unending series of tragedies.”

In good times, it’s a joke about how little his nerdy little kiddo had to gripe about. In bad times, it’s a reminder that this is the life we’ve got and we need to make what we can of it, tragedy notwithstanding.

Or to quote his favorite philosopher Marcus Aurelius: “Do not act as if you were going to live ten thousand years. Death hangs over you. While you live, while it is in your power, be good.”

We’re worried about friends and family as we face a political administration that has repeatedly promised to harm them. We’re looking for opportunities to help, and if you’ve got any ideas for us we’d love to hear about them.

And in the service of being good:

If you’ve got the means, monthly sustaining donations or volunteering would be extremely helpful and appreciated at local charitable efforts:

People are also going around cleaning off the horrific graffiti that’s been popping up around the Valley threatening violence against minority groups, and you can check out the Facebook group that’s been coordinating those efforts here.

We’re going to be donating 50% of the proceeds of tomorrow’s Nerd Nite NoHo to the ACLU and we’re planning future donations. Justin Dowd of the Brass Cat Games Night has let us know that they’re encouraging folks to bring donations to Tapestry Health to the game night this week.

Zines! The underground. Zines! The forbidden. Zines! The mysterious. Zines! The circulation of maybe 3, but hey they’re fun to make so make some Zines and get your thoughts out there! Tiny magazines of your thoughts artisianlly crafted!

“Through a grant from Western Mass Recovery Learning Community, I will be publishing a collection of short essays from members of the neurodivergent community. I’m looking for stories that show neurotypicals that we live full, emotionally complex lives. If you are interested, please submit a one page sample of your writing IN THE BODY OF THE EMAIL, NOT AS AN ATTACHMENT. I will NOT consider it if the text is not pasted in the email. Those who get selected to contribute will receive a FREE copy of the final product. ” Email smith.terrencej@gmail.com to participate! A free book in exchange for an essay isn’t bad, even if we’re not fans of spec-work stuff.

Join wonderful local hero Justin Dowd in his fun time games place where you’ll learn and play and meet nice people. He’s got all the board games and he brings a new theme every time! Other people also bring games and you can buy great beer and great food from a food truck nearby!

It’s one of those games where you gather up production into your hand and try to turn it into various upgrades and victory points and such, but the interesting idea here is that SOME of the resources can be banked permanently like we imagine you know… wood, but some of them have to be used immediately! These games are real fun for us, we like the quick sprint toward the end when you start producing a billion of something you’ve produced 3 of for the past hour. An Envoy will teach you how to play for free!

Books:

Two amazing poets reading from their poetry collections! You may remember Robert Shaw from being like one of the very few poets we all know about. Not to say poets aren’t great! Poems are wonderful, but Robert Shaw is a name we just know, which isn’t the case with a ton of poets. Anyway the point is, go hear some beautiful poems from great people.

Dramatic readings by professional actors, to bring stories to life! Kermit Dunkelberg will be reading “Ed Has His Mind Improved” by Walter R. Brooks, and Myka Plunkett will be reading “Exchange” by Ray Bradbury.

“Former 2013 Newbery Committee Member and children’s literature advocate Professor Susannah Richards will highlight dozens of great books including picture books, middle grade novels, nonfiction, graphic novels, and young adult novels. There will be refreshments, free promotional items for teachers, a special discount for purchases and special orders, and a maybe a surprise celebrity from the children’s book world during the event. Bring book loving friends!” This is so nice, books are great and so are refreshments.

Mark and Jeannie Gionfriddo authors of Good Night, Dear Hart, Good Night

“Good Night, Dear Hart, Good Night opens with her idealistic, romantic adventures as a wealthy young college graduate; her marriage to Allen and their early trials and tribulations; and how Hart and Joe’s paths cross with Ponzi, whose own rise to power and rapid descent unfolds in alternating chapters. The book offers a fascinating look at a turbulent time in Boston’s history as well as an examination of Ponzi, the inventor of the first ‘get-rich-quick’ scheme that continues to be reinvented.” Always a very important thing to know about! It’s a good idea to keep your head on a swivel when it comes to investments that seem too good to be true.

“The New York Times Book Review has stated that PEN/Faulkner award winner Sabina Murray writes historical fiction “…very beautifully, bringing it all close to us, to here, to now.” Her new novel, Valiant Gentlemen, is no different, spanning across four continents and forty years to reimagine the lives and friendships of humanitarian and Easter Rising Irish patriot Roger Casement, his closest friend, Herbert Ward, and Ward’s extraordinary wife, the Argentinean-American heiress, Sarita Sanford.” Sounds awesome! Listen to a reading, buy a copy, get it signed!

How did Dickinson want to be recognized and remembered? We may find some answers in Dickinson’s reaction to Thomas W. Higginson’s poem “Decoration.” There are few recorded instances of Dickinson exchanging poetry and commentary with another poet, so it’s a rare opportunity to explore how she read and responded to other’s poetry. Lead by the extremely great Melba Jensen, PhD in English.

Book Signing with Romola M. Rigali, Wayne E. Phaneuf, and Joseph Carvalho III authors of On Being Italian: A Story of Food, Family, and Faith

“Wayne E. Phaneuf, executive editor, Romola M. Rigali, former managing editor both at The Republican will be on hand to sign the newspaper’s newest book in its Heritage Series, On Being Italian: A Story of Food, Family and Faith. The event will feature a special treat for attendees.” Treats are 100% always great so no reason not to check this out!

Card Games:

A PPTQ! A qualifier fro the Pro Tour, and the winner will head to the Regional Pro Tour Qualifier for a chance to play in the PRO TOUR in Nashville! It’ll be $30, you’re playing standard constructed with a decklist required, and you’ll get a cash payout if you’re in the top players! Have fun and get to that pro tour!

The library will welcome people experiencing memory difficulties and their families to hang out and have some relaxation and refreshments and generally talk to folks who know how it is to deal with memory problems!

Jones Library [43 Amity St., Amherst, MA 01002] at 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM

Racial Equity Leadership

We don’t entirely know what’s up with this but it sounds like a very good idea, you should check it out and talk to people and get back to us about what’s up!

Computers:

Solve WordPress problems with friends, bring your laptop to help the group get to the bottom of things! Talk about effective backup solutions, and also learn about interpreting integrated Google Analytics! You should sign up so you can get WordPress questions answered and be a better computerer. NCTV is located at the rear of Northampton HS. they’ll be in NCTV’s studio room!

History:

“From Nothing to Something: The Surprising Start and Rapid Spread of Basket Ball from Springfield to the World”

In this lively panel discussion, Professors Dennis Gildea and Derek Paar of Springfield College, along with Springfield College Archivist Jeff Monseau, will explore the history and spread of basketball from its origins into the twentieth century. Springfield gave this gift to the world and you should not forget it! Western Mass contributes.

Movies:

Ahhhhh hahaha the poster is Alfred Hitchcock putting an L in the word “Strangers” to make it “Stranglers” old movie posters are awesome. See the movie about a person who thinks he’s got a foolproof plan for murder and the stranger he forces into it!

Science:

Monday, November 14th

The World War 2 Club [50 Conz St, Northampton, MA 01060]

Nerd Nite NoHo: Emotions and Architecture

Grad Student Andrea Cataldo will discuss “Quantifying Emotion in the Decision Process”! She’s very smart and great so the talk will be awesome. Then we’ve got Brianne Zulkiewicz who’ll talk about “Triple Deckers: New England’s Working Class Vernacular Architecture”, which is neat because it’s one of those things you sort of notice around here and then when you actually take second you realize how much pragmatic design decisions shaped the landscape you’re in.

Jon Caris and Scott Gilman from the Spatial Analysis Lab at Smith College will talk about the making, use, and interpretation of maps! They’ll talk about how historical maps like the “Nolli map” are re-purposed and re-imagined in the digital age!

Join Ralph & Steven in this interactive program as they explore their surroundings and cultivate curiosity for the natural world. This November’s meeting will focus on a library mystery to be solved using chemical forensic techniques. Who was the culprit: M&Ms, Skittles, or Kool-Aid? For kids aged 8-11! Give or take a bit you know your own kids, you know? Register online here.

Video Games:

There’s a $5 cover, ladies are free, and it’s welcoming to all ages. It’s been getting bigger and better really quickly! Folks at the events look like they’re having a super good time and you can win prizes so that’s nice. You can also play: Mario Kart, Street Fighter, Marvel Vs. Capcom, and Mortal Kombat. It’s like a pop-up arcade full of friendly people the best idea.

The Valley Nerd Watch!

So we’re still not completely certain if any of our readers have Steam accounts, but we’re pretty excited to recommend you play a computer game! Invisible, Inc. is a really fun game about stealthily robbing places around the world in order to save your super-secret spy organization. It’s kind of like playing a much more serious version of Archer. Part of the fun is that you tend to triumph against odds that seem impossible, even on the beginner difficulty!

Let us know on the Facebook page or on our Twitter account whether or not you actually play video games! If you do, we might be thinking of putting together something fun like a Towerfall or a Nidhogg get-together!

So are you all as excited about TopatoCon as we are? Because we’re REALLY EXCITED! There are a huge number of really neat exhibitors! You’ll definitely find something of interest to you! Including, of course, a lot of locals who are doing various cool things.

Read the TopatoCon code of conduct to know how to conduct yourself at the con! It boils down to: be cool, please.

And finally, we think they’re still looking for volunteers! If you want to pitch in, just use this form.

As always, be sure to check out the Weekly Events page! There are a lot of fun things happening this and every week! And the book club list!

THIS WEEK

Art:

Are you a budding novelist? A poet who DOES know it? Also a teen? The creative writing group meets to work on a variety of writing activities and share their work together as they feel comfortable. Facilitated by Bridget, and snacks are provided!

A body-positive cabaret figure-drawing session! Hone your craft while hanging out and having fun! Bring your own supplies, get some drinks and delicious foods, sketch some cool models, and even enter for a chance to win prizes from FOE, Topatoco, and Oh My Sensuality Shop!

Board Games:

There will be miniature game demos, there will be some open play, and there will be a chance to meet and greet with the community! What fun. Good place to be if you’re looking for people with whom to play miniatures battling games!

Hosted by Jaimie! You can hang out and play this cute miniatures battling game where you bash all the various heroes and villains of Marvel and DC and Dark Horse and WIldstorm and… comic people just in general! Try a team of alternate versions of a single character! Maybe Captain Marvel.

Stop by the store and play some board games! Games provided, or you can bring your own! We recommend Pandemic, that’s a fun time. Oh, or we’ve been looking forward to trying out the XCOM board game, it seems neat! Don’t bring Diplomacy.

Books:

Teens! Take as much control as possible of your local institutions as early as possible. We hate to break this to you, but things aren’t looking great and older people are all pretty much just banking on having croaked right as it gets really bad. The TAB meets regularly to discuss books, plan library events, and improve programming at the library!

Join the nice folks at Jones for a lively discussion of Harper Lee’s new book, the sequel to that one book you probably read oh it’s just a little thing called… TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD? The conversation will be led by Barry O’Connell, James E. Ostendarp Professor of English, Emeritus, at Amherst College. Oh those weren’t three people that was a title that makes more sense. Refreshments will be served.

Card Games:

We’re going to straight-up admit we do not know what this is. What vault? Why angels? What even are the particulars of the afterlife in Magic: The Gathering? When you play the game is the implication that everyone dies when you put a card in the Graveyard? Still, buy some new cards for $67.50 – $75.00!

All month long at Greenfield Games, you can play Friday Night Magic! Two tournaments with two fun formats: Standard and Modern. There are Swiss pairings of 3 to 4 rounds, and a $5 entry fee. There are lots of prizes!

Comics:

This is a really great discussion group! Fun times with kind people who talk about interesting things. You can always count on an interesting recommendation and a lot of very thoughtful discussion of LGBTQIA+ representation in comics and games. Admission is a $5 day pass that becomes store credit immediately.

A regular meetup of coders, web designers, web… just web-type people. It’s a great time to meet up with other developers and get some advice, or just hang out and develop friendships with people who understand your frustrations and triumphs!

Entertainment:

You heard them! It’s a fun time with some DJs spinning chip tunes dance hits because when you’re nerdy you actually cannot process music that doesn’t sound like an old video game we think. There’s going to be some vendors with neat stuff, video games, and it’s a Game of Thrones theme! Dress in costume! IT’s 21+ and there’s an $8 cover.

Anime and manga are fun times that a lot of people enjoy. Hang out with these people and watch, read, discuss, and enjoy these art forms! Open to teens and young adults ages 14 and up. Though the Young Adults part suggests a ceiling? We’ll say 14-24? We’re not really certain when Young Adult ends. If it feels weird, pull the ripcord!

Movies:

A cool movie! Or so we’ve heard. We haven’t actually seen it, and we’d like to! This is a chance to see it, so we’re excited about that. We’ve heard good things about Ex Machina, even heard it compared favorably to Blade Runner!

Akira! A real awesome incredibly influential anime that people are big into for good reasons. It’s a beautiful cyberpunk vision of the future, one of the best animated movies of all time. Please bring $5 to defray the cost of food! Join the meetup to find out where this neat event is happening!

RPGs:

Create a character! Explore their adventures! Explore their mind! Really get in there deep and think about what it would be like to be that person! No! No wait, too far! You’re all the way in! You’re tumbling through the Space Between and being reborn in the world of the RPG you were playing! All ages welcome, no experience necessary.

Stop by the shop to adventure on the high seas! This is a 5th-level game, but new players are totally welcome! You can join at any time and you’ll get tossed a pre-made character and some dice! It’s hosted by Tim Shields, a very nice person. You’ll like it! Play as a Parrot Elemental if you can. That’s just a swarm of parrots in the form of a person.

Play in an official Pathfinder Society game! If you get to a high enough level in the game, the Last Starfighter clause kicks in and you’re drawn into a mystical world of adventure! That’s how it is at all official RPG events, it’s why you see people disappear in a twinkle of mystical light so often!

Star Wars! Wars in the Stars! Technically, we suppose all wars take place in the stars. We’re pretty excited about the Rogue One announcement, it seems like it might be a pretty cool film. If you are the sort of person who also gets excited about Star Wars, play the RPG at Modern Myths!

Science:

So there’s a free picnic presentation series at River Valley Market, it seems fun! The current week looks like it’s in the general Nerd Watch sphere of interest because it has Skye Long and Laura Doubleday presenting, two of the people who organize the OEB Science Cafes! Though it doesn’t say what they’ll be presenting.

Friday, August 21st

Emily Dickinson Museum [280 Main St, Amherst, MA 01002] at All Day

Free Fun Friday

Learn about an interesting local celebrity at a museum! Become more historically literate, and all at no cost to yourself.

Saturday, August 22nd

Historic Northampton [46 Bridge St., Northampton, MA 01060] at 2:00pm

Caleb Cooley Dickinson: Eccentric, Lunatic, or Something Else?

W. Michael Ryan will speak at Historic Northampton about Caleb Cooley Dickinson! Kind of always assumed that the hospital was named after two people! He was a Hatfield farmer who left his $100,000 estate to build a hospital in Northampton. His kids tried to prove he was mentally unfit so they could get the money! Sounds like a heck of a story.